In this illustration taken on February 17, 2023, a Chinese flag is displayed next to a “Made in China” logo on a printed circuit board with semiconductor wafers.
Florence | Reuters
The United States launched its third crackdown on China’s semiconductor industry in three years on Monday, restricting exports to 140 companies including chip equipment manufacturers. Northern Huachuang Technology Groupand other measures.
Efforts to thwart Beijing’s chipmaking ambitions also hit Chinese chip tool makers PiotekACM Research and SiCarrier Technology instituted new export restrictions as part of a plan that also aims to ship advanced memory chips and more chipmaking tools to China.
The move is one of the last large-scale actions taken by the Biden administration to block China’s ability to obtain and produce chips that could help advance military applications of artificial intelligence or otherwise threaten U.S. national security.
With just weeks to go before Republican President-elect Trump is sworn in, Trump is expected to retain many of Biden’s tough measures against China.
The plan includes restrictions on the export of high-bandwidth storage chips to China, which are crucial for high-end applications such as artificial intelligence training; new restrictions on 24 additional chip manufacturing tools and three software tools; and restrictions on chip manufacturing equipment made in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia. Implement new export restrictions.
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the move was aimed at preventing “China from advancing its domestic semiconductor manufacturing system, which would be used to support its military modernization.”
Reuters first reported the companies involved and key details of the plan.
Tool controls could harm non-U.S. companies such as Lam Research, KLA and Applied Materials, as well as Dutch equipment maker ASM International.
Chinese companies facing new restrictions include nearly two dozen semiconductor companies, two investment firms and more than 100 chip manufacturing tool makers.
The companies include Swaysure Technology Co, Si’En Qingdao and Shenzhen Pensun Technology Co, which are partnering with China’s Huawei Technologies Co. The telecommunications equipment leader has become a hub for advanced chip production and development in China after being beset by U.S. sanctions.
They will be added to the Entity List, which prohibits U.S. suppliers from shipping to them without first obtaining special permission.
When asked about the U.S. restrictive measures, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that such behavior undermines the international economic and trade order and disrupts the global supply chain.
He added at a regular news conference on Monday that China would take measures to safeguard the rights and interests of its companies.
After the new restrictions were announced, China’s Ministry of Commerce issued a statement on its official website saying that the U.S. restrictions were a clear example of “economic coercion” and “non-market behavior.”
In recent years, China has stepped up efforts to become self-sufficient in its semiconductor industry as the United States and other countries restricted exports of advanced chips and their manufacturing tools. However, it is still years behind chip industry leaders such as Nvidia and Dutch chip equipment maker ASML in artificial intelligence chips.
The United States is also preparing to impose more restrictions SMICChina’s largest contract chip manufacturer, the company was placed on the Entity List in 2020, but the policy allowed it to issue billions of dollars worth of cargo transportation licenses.
For the first time, the United States has included three companies investing in chips on the entity list. Chinese private equity firm Zhilu Capital, technology companies Wingtech Technology Co., Ltd. The department said it added JAC Capital and Jianguang Asset Management to the list because they “played an important role in assisting the Chinese government in its efforts to acquire entities with sensitive semiconductor manufacturing capabilities critical to the defense industrial base of the United States and its allies.” “Move these entities to China”.
Companies seeking to ship to companies on the Entity List are often denied.
Netherlands and Japan exempted
One aspect of the new package involving foreign direct products rules could harm the interests of some U.S. allies by limiting what their companies can ship to China.
The new rules would expand U.S. power to restrict U.S., Japanese and Dutch manufacturers from exporting chip-making equipment made elsewhere in the world to certain Chinese chip factories.
Devices made in Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan are subject to the rule, while Japan and the Netherlands are not.
The expanded foreign direct product rules will apply to 16 companies on the Entity List that are seen as most important to China’s state-of-the-art chipmaking ambitions.
The rule would also determine when the U.S. content of certain foreign items subject to U.S. control drops to zero. This would allow the U.S. to regulate anything shipped from overseas to China that contains U.S. chips.
The new rules come after lengthy discussions with Japan and the Netherlands, which together with the United States dominate the production of advanced wafer-making equipment.
An ASML spokesman said the company was “currently assessing the potential impact of the new regulations.” Sources told Reuters the United States plans to exempt countries with similar control measures.
Another rule in the plan limits the memory used in artificial intelligence chips corresponding to so-called “HBM 2” and higher, a technology made by South Korea’s Samsung, SK Hynix and the US company Micron.
Industry insiders expect that only Samsung Electronics will be affected. Analysts estimate that about 30% of Samsung’s HBM chip sales come from China.
The latest rules are the third chip-related export restrictions the Biden administration has taken against China.
In October 2022, the United States issued a comprehensive set of control measures on the sale and manufacturing of certain high-end chips, which is considered the biggest shift in its science and technology policy toward China since the 1990s.
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